Judge dismisses ouster against Topeka City Councilman Jonathan Schumm

DA's office says ouster will be refiled after criminal case is resolved

By Steve Fry

steve.fry@cjonline.com

In a hearing lasting only seconds on Friday, Shawnee County District Court Judge Franklin Theis dismissed a civil action seeking to oust Topeka City Councilman Jonathan Schumm from office.

The district attorney’s office filed the motion several hours earlier on Friday morning to dismiss the ouster action. But the motion says the ouster action will be refiled after a criminal case alleging Schumm beat a son with a belt is resolved.

Tom Lemon, an attorney representing Schumm, didn’t object to the dismissal, and senior assistant district attorney Todd Hiatt said he would prepare the order dismissing the case.

During the hearing, Schumm was seated on a bench just outside the courtroom. It wasn’t mandatory for him to attend all hearings in a civil proceeding.

The motion was filed about 10 a.m. Friday in the clerk of the district court’s office and sought dismissal without prejudice, which means the ouster can be filed again.

The motion states the ouster will be refiled “against the defendant once the children are stable and the criminal matter has been resolved.”

Schumm learned of the motion to dismiss the ouster from a reporter immediately following a city council committee meeting Friday morning. 

He was visibly emotional and said he was “glad to hear that.”

The ouster filing opened information about his children to the public that otherwise may have remained private, he said, adding he hoped the charge wasn’t politically motivated.

“My concern has always been for my children,” he said.

Schumm wasn’t immediately aware that the proposed dismissal was temporary.

The district attorney’s office sought the ouster on the contention that abusing a child is a crime of moral turpitude, which would disqualify him from serving as a city councilman, the motion said.

The defense contends the criminal allegations don’t relate to Schumm’s ability to serve as a councilman.

The motion on Friday said the district attorney’s primary purpose in seeking the dismissal “relates to the stability of the defendant’s children and the desire to proceed in an orderly fashion in prosecuting our claims against the defendant while causing the least amount of harm and disruption to his children.”

The presence of children in the Schumm ouster case contributes to temporarily dismissing the ouster, unlike earlier ouster cases where children weren’t a factor.

In a general way, the motion lays out the status of 12 of the Schumms’ 17 children.

The district attorney’s office has met with the Kansas Department for Children and Families, DCF caseworkers, and private contractors who are working with the Schumm children “to provide therapeutic services and (to) find these children a safe and loving home.”

The 12 children have been placed in eight homes across Kansas, the motion said.

As part of the investigation in Schumm’s criminal case, the eight children have been questioned by child forensic interviewers, social workers and law enforcement officers, the motion said.

DCF and attorneys tied to the child-in-need-of-care cases filed on behalf of the children are seeking permanent homes for the children “where they can be safe and well cared for,” the motion said.

Dismissing the civil ouster case now blocks the Schumm children from “interrogation and the intense scrutiny” linked to a civil case, the motion said.

The interrogation and scrutiny “is not in their best interest at this time,” the motion said. Since the recent birth of a child to Jonathan Schumm and his wife, Allison Schumm, the two have 17 children, of whom five are biological, two are in foster care and 10 are adopted.

The motion doesn’t specify whether the 12 children referred to are foster children, adopted or biological children. The motion also doesn’t specify the status of the other five children.

Of the 12, eight are expected to testify in the criminal case filed against Jonathan Schumm.

Jonathan Schumm, 34, and Allison Schumm, 32, were charged on Nov. 19 with one criminal count each of aggravated battery and, as an alternative, abuse of a child (torture or cruelly beating a child younger than 18), which is alleged to have occurred between Oct. 7 and Oct. 11, and four counts of endangering a child, which is alleged to have happened Oct. 31.

The Schumms were booked into the Shawnee County Jail and posted bond Nov. 20. Allison Schumm is charged in the criminal case with aiding Jonathan Schumm.

Jonathan Schumm will appear at a preliminary hearing on Feb. 19 for the criminal charges. Allison Schumm was to have had a preliminary hearing on Tuesday but that was postponed after she applied a day earlier for diversion in the case.

Jonathan Schumm has characterized the civil case to strip him of his city councilman’s seat as “an accusation that he was overly zealous in disciplining his children.”

Schumm has denied repeatedly striking his 12-year-old son with a belt, lacerating an eye and a hand, then choking him with his hands and threatening to kill him. Schumm also denied committing aggravated battery or the alternative charge of abuse of a child.

Capital-Journal reporter Luke Ranker contributed to this report.

Steve Fry can be reached at (785) 295-1206 or steve.fry@cjonline.com.
Follow Steve on Twitter @@TCJCourtsNCrime.